The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning Without Involvement

Abstract

Does television advertising produce sales by changing attitudes? Not always, says Herbert E. Krugman in his presidential address before the American Association for Public Opinion Research on May 15, 1965. It may do so, he states, just by changing perceptions of the product in the course of merely shifting the relative salience of attitudes, especially when the purchaser is not particularly involved in the message. This arresting thesis has important implications for noncommercial as well as commercial persuasion efforts.